The Sterling Submachine Gun

Designed by a motorcycle racer turned small-arms engineer, George Patchett, the submachine gun that eventually became known as the Sterling was developed during World War II. Some suggest it first saw action during Operation Infatuate with No. 4 Commando, before becoming fully adopted by the British Army in 1953 as the Sterling Machine Carbine (L2A1).

It was center stage for many of Britain's post-colonial conflicts from Malaya to Kenya and from Yemen to Northern Ireland. The silenced L34A1...